UGC-MOOCs: FAQs

e-PGPathshala is a one portal under which High quality, curriculum-based,interactive content in different subjects across all disciplines of social sciences, arts, fine arts & humanities, natural & mathematical sciences, linguistics and languages is being developed. MHRD, under its National Mission on Education through ICT (NME-ICT), has assigned work to the UGC for development of e-content in 68 subjects at postgraduate level. The content and its quality is the key component of education system.

The students and teachers can use this e-content as an Open Educational Resource (OER) or as resource material in a Flipped Classroom model where, in contrast to the conventional classroom teaching, the students watch the video lecture/study material at home and classroom is used for discussions and critical thinking including discussion/problem solving and assignments with the help of teachers and peers.

The acronym "MOOC" stands for Massive Open Online Courses. The word "massive" here means that there is no limit on the number of learners who can enrol in the course. The word "open" means that there are no madatory requirements for the learner to enrol in this course. These courses are fully online and delivered through internet. These courses are highly multimedia enriched interactive online courses which offer a unique opportunity to the learners to learn these courses as per their convenience. The basic philosophy of MOOCs is 3A's i.e., Anytime, Anyone, Anywhere

SWAYAM (Study Webs of Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds) is an indigenous platform of the GOI which hosts MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) courses to enable students to virtually attend the courses taught by the best faculty; access high quality reading resources; participate in discussion forums; take tests and earn academic grades.

e-PG Pathshala provides e-content for post-graduate courses in various subjects in four quadrant. It can be accessed as Open Educational Resource where no teacher support/hand-holding for students is available. SWAYAM is a web platform on which MOOCs shall be hosted. These MOOCs shall have teacher-student groups where MOOC coordinator/tutor/teacher will be interacting with the learner. A learner can earn certificate/credit on successful completion of course
on SWAYAM.

UGC is already in the process of developing high quality, curriculum based e-content at PG level under the ePG Pathshala programme of NMEICT. About 18,000 modules are already uploaded on the ePG Pathshala website (www.epqp.inflibnet.ac.in). UGC is also offering MOOCs as online courses on the SWAYAM platform by various universities with the provision of credit mobility across educational institutions

For developing fresh MOOCs, in the areas which are widely in demand but for which enough resources in terms of quality faculty are not available in all the universities UGC invites online suggestions from from all stakeholders including lnstitutions, academia, students, industry and public at large regarding the PG courses for which MOOCs should be developed on priority. Based on the suggestions received, UGC invites "Expression of interest" from higher education institutions and academicians to develop MOOCs for these courses and ensure production of high quality MOOCS in these identified areas comparable to international standards. EOIs are reviewd by AMEGss

SWAYAM Prabha is a project for operationalising 32 Direct to Home (DTH) Television Channels on 24X7 basis using the GSAT-15 satellite for providing high quality educational content to all teachers, students and citizens across the country interested in lifelong learning. Every day, there will be new content for at least (4) hours which would be repeated 5 more times in a day, allowing the students to choose the time of their convenience. The channels are uplinked from BISAG, Gandhinagar. The UG/PG level DTH channels of CEC/UGC , ten in number, cover Curriculum-based course contents at post-graduate and under-graduate level in diverse disciplines such as arts, science, commerce, performing arts, social sciences and humanities, engineering, technology, law, medicine, agriculture, etc.

The following are the steps to be taken by a University for adopting MOOCs on SWAYAM

Step-1: Make Amendments The University through their Competent Authority (EC, AC, BOS), should make amendments in their Ordinances, Rules, Regulations to incorporate provisions for transfer of credits for MOOCs courses as per UGC Regulations.

Step-2: Select the Courses The University shall select the courses to be permitted for credit transfer through SWAYAM. (eg courses in high demand for which faculty is not available, elective courses or for supplementing teaching-learning process) while ensuring that physical facilities like laboratories, computer facilities, library etc. required for the course are made available free to the students in adequate measure

Step-3: Designate Course Coordinator The University must designate a Course Coordinator/facilitator to guide the students throughout the course and to facilitate/conduct the Lab/Practical sessions/examinations.

Step-4: Disseminate Information The University should widely disseminate information about selected courses and motivate the students through faculty members, notice boards, student forums, workshops and university website etc.

Step-5: Course Registration University to facilitate registration of students. All the students enrolled for the course in the University must register for the MOOCs course.

About UGC-MOOCs

SWAYAM is an instrument for self-actualisation providing opportunities for a life-long learning. Here learner can choose from hundreds of courses.

Virtually every course that is taught at the university / college / school level.